Delete a document

Finds a single document in a collection using filter and sort clauses, and then deletes that document.

This method and the method to find and delete a document have the same database effect but differ in their return value. This method returns details about the success of the deletion. The method to find and delete a document returns the document that was found and deleted.

Ready to write code? See the examples for this method to get started. If you are new to the Data API, check out the quickstart.

Result

Deletes a document that matches the specified parameters and returns a CollectionDeleteResult object that includes details about the success of the operation.

Example response:

python
CollectionDeleteResult(deleted_count=1, raw_results=...)

Parameters

Use the delete_one method, which belongs to the astrapy.Collection class.

Method signature
python
delete_one(
  filter: Dict[str, Any],
  *,
  sort: Dict[str, Any],
  general_method_timeout_ms: int,
  request_timeout_ms: int,
  timeout_ms: int,
) -> CollectionDeleteResult
Name Type Summary

filter

Dict[str, Any]

Optional. An object that defines filter criteria using the Data API filter syntax. The method only finds documents that match the filter criteria.

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections.

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

sort

Dict[str, Any]

Optional. Sorts documents by one or more fields, or performs a vector search.

For more information, see Sort clauses for collections.

Sort clauses can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in sort queries.

For vector searches, this parameter can use either $vector or $vectorize.

general_method_timeout_ms

int

Optional. The maximum time, in milliseconds, that the client should wait for the underlying HTTP request.

Default: The default value for the collection. This default is 30 seconds unless you specified a different default when you initialized the Collection or DataAPIClient object. For more information, see Timeout options.

request_timeout_ms

int

Optional. An alias for general_method_timeout_ms. Since this method issues a single HTTP request, general_method_timeout_ms and request_timeout_ms are equivalent.

timeout_ms

int

Optional. An alias for general_method_timeout_ms.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to delete a document in a collection.

Delete a document by ID

All documents have a unique _id property. You can use a filter to find a document with a specific _id, and then delete that document.

python
from astrapy import DataAPIClient

# Get an existing collection
client = DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN")
database = client.get_database("API_ENDPOINT")
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

# Delete a document
result = collection.delete_one({"_id": "101"})

print(result)

Delete a document that matches a filter

You can use a filter to find a document that matches specific criteria. For example, you can find a document with an is_checked_out value of false and a number_of_pages value less than 300.

For a list of available filter operators and more examples, see Filter operators for collections.

Filters can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in a filter.

python
from astrapy import DataAPIClient

# Get an existing collection
client = DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN")
database = client.get_database("API_ENDPOINT")
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

# Delete a document
result = collection.delete_one(
    {
        "$and": [
            {"is_checked_out": False},
            {"number_of_pages": {"$lt": 300}},
        ]
    }
)

print(result)

Delete a document that is most similar to a search vector

To find the document whose $vector value is most similar to a given vector, use a sort with the vector embeddings that you want to match. For more information, see Find data with vector search.

Vector search is only available for vector-enabled collections. For more information, see Create a collection that can store vector embeddings and $vector in collections.

python
from astrapy import DataAPIClient

# Get an existing collection
client = DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN")
database = client.get_database("API_ENDPOINT")
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

# Delete a document
result = collection.delete_one(
    {},
    sort={"$vector": [0.1, 0.2, 0.3]},
)

print(result)

Delete a document that is most similar to a search string

To find the document whose $vector value is most similar to the $vector value of a given search string, use a sort with the search string that you want to vectorize and match. For more information, see Find data with vector search.

Vector search with vectorize is only available for collections that have vectorize enabled. For more information, see Create a collection that can automatically generate vector embeddings and $vectorize in collections.

python
from astrapy import DataAPIClient

# Get an existing collection
client = DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN")
database = client.get_database("API_ENDPOINT")
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

# Delete a document
result = collection.delete_one({}, sort={"$vectorize": "Text to vectorize"})

print(result)

Delete a document after applying a non-vector sort

You can use a sort clause to sort documents by one or more fields.

For more information, see Sort clauses for collections.

Sort clauses can use only indexed fields. If you apply selective indexing when you create a collection, you cannot reference non-indexed fields in sort queries.

python
from astrapy import DataAPIClient
from astrapy.constants import SortMode

# Get an existing collection
client = DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN")
database = client.get_database("API_ENDPOINT")
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

# Find a document
result = collection.delete_one(
    {"metadata.language": "English"},
    sort={
        "rating": SortMode.ASCENDING,
        "title": SortMode.DESCENDING,
    },
)

print(result)

Client reference

For more information, see the client reference.

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